Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Arkansas still has a shot at making the SEC Championship game.

Win out and the Razorbacks, ranked behind No. 1 LSU and No. 5 Alabama,  could likely create a three-way tie for the SEC West. That would put Arkansas, LSU and Alabama all tied at 11-1 overall and 7-1 in the SEC. 

An eight-part tiebreaker would be used to determine the champion and all eight factors would be in play. Here’s a breakdown from College Football Talk on No. 8, which would ultimately decide the West representative in the SEC title game:

8. The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the last weekend of regular-season games shall be the divisional representative in the SEC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the SEC Championship Game.

This is where it gets tricky for the Razorbacks.

Based on my interpretation of the eighth tiebreaker, which was subsequently verified by an SEC official, Arkansas would need to beat LSU and have both themselves and LSU — in any order as long as the Hogs are within five spots if behind the Tigers — finish higher than Alabama in the final regular season BCS rankings in order to become the West’s rep in the conference title game. Arkansas’ loss to Alabama earlier this year necessitates both the Razorbacks and LSU finishing ahead of the Tide in that last set of BCS rankings before the start of the conference championship game.

Confused? Enlightened?